Waiting School Buses Settle Mideast 'Problem'

The Palestine Liberation Organization recognized Israel's right to exist, and Israel agreed to make the West Bank a Palestinian homeland yesterday after a lengthy United Nations debate.

The Palestine resolution was the last passed in a two-day Model United Nations conference at Moravian College.

The Model U.N. is run by college students for high school students, explained Jeffrey Sharer, president of the Student Society for International Relations, sponsor of the event. More than 300 students from 16 area school districts participated in the ninth annual conference.

For 1 1/2 hours yesterday afternoon, delegates to the General Assembly debated the PLO resolution, spending most of that time deciding whether the PLO should be given voting and membership rights in the U.N.

Another snag came when it was announced that a Palestinian terrorist group had just hijacked a plane in Rome. But, after those hurdles were passed, it didn't take long to close the debate on the entire resolution, which included creating a buffer zone administered by U.N. troops between the new Palestinian state and Israel.

Of course, the speed with which the final vote came may have had something to do with the fact that the buses returning the high school students to their home schools were warming up to leave.

On their way to the closing ceremonies, Freedom High School students Whitney Collins and Shawn Williams, delegates of Vietnam, said they spent time before the conference in the library researching articles on Vietnam, learning its economic status and its major allies. Unfortunately, Williams said, a backlog of resolutions developed and the delegates were not able to get to all of them.

The General Assembly was sent 25 resolutions, and was able to act on nine of them, chairman Chris Gilbert said. Gilbert, a senior at Moravian, said the conference was one of the best he has seen because of the preparation done by the students.

He said the students did well, despite being unused to debating in the formal way required in the committee meetings. "They feel the rules get in their way," he explained.

The Saudi Arabian delegates to the Economic Committee found ways to use those rules to their advantage. Ashley Heiberger and Travis Wuchter of Northampton High School described how they "invoked several obscure rules" and staged a walkout when the committee would not consider their resolution on oil prices. Eventually, the two, who won the outstanding delegates award for their committee, were able to get the resolution through.

Sharer said it is sometimes difficult for students to represent a country, such as Libya, from the viewpoint of that country. The purpose of the conference, he said, is to make students aware of world problems and their effect on the Lehigh Valley. The students also learn how to work together, getting things accomplished in a setting different from their usual classroom experience.

Members of the Moravian club are now preparing for a United Nations Conference for college students they will be attending later this month at Harvard University.